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This invention relates generally to the field of wiring connections for electronic musical instruments. More particularly, this invention in certain embodiments relates to a cable snake arrangement for routing signal and/or power between special effects devices and amplification systems.
Electric guitarists and other musicians often enhance the sound of their instrument with special effects devices. Such special effects device may take the form of so called xe2x80x9cstomp boxxe2x80x9d pedals or xe2x80x9crack unitsxe2x80x9d. Stomp boxes are effects pedals that turn on and off by stomping down on a switch with the foot or are otherwise operated with the musician""s foot. Such devices modify or enhance the sound by adding echo, reverb, tone, phasing, or other sound-altering effects. Rack units provide similar functions, but are mounted in an equipment rack. Many rack units employ MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), and are often controlled from a MIDI foot pedal. The term xe2x80x9cpedalxe2x80x9d is used to generically refer to both effects devices themselves as well as remote foot pedals associated with rack units. The terms xe2x80x9cstomp boxxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpedalxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ceffects pedalxe2x80x9d are used synonymously herein.
Such pedals are most commonly powered by a 9 VDC (Volts DC) power source. The power source can be either a battery or an external power source. In view of the relatively low amount of current required to power such devices, the power source often takes the form of a so called xe2x80x9cwall wart.xe2x80x9d A wall wart is a transformer with electrical prongs that plug directly into a 120 VAC (in the United States) AC power outlet. The transformer reduces the AC voltage and converts it to DC to provide DC power to the effects device. Although most pedals use a standard 9 VDC battery, an external power source such as a wall wart is frequently used to replace the batteries, especially in systems that employ several pedals, because changing batteries can be costly and time consuming, and can disrupt a performance when a battery is expiring.
Wall warts can be problematic because their size, shape, and weight. Plugging a wall wart into a typical multiple-outlet AC power strip can be cumbersome, or impossible at times when other plugs are plugged into the power strip. This is due to the size of the transformer and close spacing of the outlets on the strip. Moreover, when a wall wart power source is plugged into a power outlet, it frequently covers another outlet preventing its use. More sophisticated power supplies are also available to provide multiple power outlets for multiple pedals. These supplies are often more expensive than wall wart type power supplies.
When more than one pedal is used by a guitarist, bass player or other musician, a pedal board is often employed to organize the pedals. A pedal board is a structure such as a rectangular (or other shape) board or case upon which multiple pedals are mounted. Multiple pedals are mounted onto the pedal board (a single platform), and power for all the pedals can then come from one or two power sources that are generally situated near the board and plugged into a multi-outlet AC power strip. The board is frequently located near a front area of the stage (the xe2x80x9cfrontlinexe2x80x9d) for easy access by the musician. One or more connections are then made from the pedal board to the amplifier, which is usually located on the xe2x80x9cbacklinexe2x80x9dxe2x80x94a term for the back of the stage where the amplifiers are lined up to aim forward at the players (guitarists and any other musicians) at the front of the stage, and into the audience out front. Although a guitar-, bass- or other instrument-amplifier is the usual mechanism amplifying the sound of an electric guitar, other amplifying systems, such as a public address system can also be employed. When an instrument-amplifier is used, connections are often made between the pedal board and the amplifier""s instrument input, as well as to and from an effects loop provided at the amplifier.
As a result of these multiple connections, many electrical cables may be needed to interface to the pedal board including (but not limited to) AC power extension cord to provide power to the warts, AC strip to plug in multiple warts, shielded audio cable from the output of the guitar to the first pedal input, shielded audio cable to output the pedal signal to the guitar amplifier input, shielded audio cable to output a signal to the amplifier""s effects loop xe2x80x9creturnxe2x80x9d, shielded audio cable to input a signal from the amplifier""s effects loop xe2x80x9csendxe2x80x9d, a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) cable, and/or other connections. If a wireless connection is used to connect to the musical instrument, a wireless receiver may also need a shielded audio cable connection to the pedal board, since such wireless receivers are often located at the backline along with the amplifier.
Such wiring between the frontline and the backline can be problematic since the wires generally run through a central stage area. Not only is the wiring unsightly, but it can be underfoot where it may be easily damaged or unplugged during a performance. Moreover, setup and teardown of the instrument amplification system can be slow and cumbersome due to all of the individual cables.